India still pushing RIM to give access to BlackBerry Email

The battle between the Government of India and RIM continues on as India calls on once again for encrypted data that would give them access to BlackBerry emails on the BlackBerry network. The Hindu Business Line reports that the Government of India will shut down telecom operators that cannot be monitored as per the satisfaction of law enforcement agencies. Eight operators including Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Tatas and also two state owned firms -- BSNL and MTNL -- are offering BlackBerry services across the country and it has emerged a popular service among corporates for its enterprise mail service.

In past events, RIM has decided to budge a bit on India's demands when they gave India access to consumer messaging in allowing providers to access messages sent via BBM. India then turned up the heat soon after with the request for encrypted data for email access, and RIM responded quickly stating that the BlackBerry network has limitations set in place which would make it impossible to give India access to encrypted data in fulfilling their demands...

“There is no possibility of us providing any kind of a solution,” RIM VP Robert Crow said to reporters. “There is no solution. There are no keys to be handed.”..."It’s not possible to do so because the keys of the service are in possession of the corporate enterprises.”

So it seems that RIM and India have almost reached the end of compromise. If what RIM says is true about the non-ability to give India access to BlackBerry data, and this is what India needs to satisfy - then it may result in many disappointing BlackBerry users in India, and deal a huge blow to RIM and their success in the region. Of course, the demands of India could be nothing more than a bluff to try and see how far they can push RIM.

Where do you think this exchange is leading to? Should RIM stand their ground?